


Distance Sucks

by KRollins



Series: The Building of Seth and Dean [2]
Category: Professional Wrestling
Genre: Fluff, Injury Recovery, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Multi, Overprotective, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-29 19:06:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17209214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KRollins/pseuds/KRollins
Summary: Dean comes to terms with the fact Seth was a bit more vital to his life than he had realized while he and Roman attempt to cope with the fact he's not with them.





	Distance Sucks

All things put together in one through the time period, Seth's injury sucked, and it took its toll on all three of them. After the initial shock and babying of Seth, he had his surgery and Roman and Dean returned to the road. Despite the fact Seth was injured, Dean was thrilled to have Roman to himself for a while, and also thrilled at the fact that he had that to use in order to annoy Seth. 

After a month or two, however, the toll Seth's absence took on Roman began to transfer to Dean. He told himself it was simply because he missed annoying him, but he internally knew that he was lying to himself. Their shared locker rooms, and hotel rooms, were just a lot quieter than usual. Almost eerily quiet. No sound of the usual bickering between Seth and Dean, no sound of Seth murmuring to himself his game plan, no sound of Roman rolling his eyes and ending whatever petty fight the two managed to pick with the other, no sound of Seth. 

It got to the point where Dean couldn't even stand the silence anymore. "I'm glad Seth never listened to me when I told him to shut up." He murmured, mostly to himself, but due to the deathly silence of the locker room, Roman heard him. He glanced up and rose a questioning eyebrow in Dean's direction, causing the latter to sigh. "If he had listened to me we would have been plunged into this silence. This is way worse than him blabbing off non stop."

Roman had to hide his small smirk and chuckle. He found it cute how Dean was kind of subconsciously missing Seth. "He'll be back to worrying himself to death and keeping us on track in no time, just you wait, D. He's strong, our boy. Stronger than he gives himself credit for." And with that being said, the room went back to silence. That is, until Dean got fed up with it again.

"How are you still so calm?" Dean asked, subconsciously moving his leg up and down.

This time Roman did nothing to hide the small chuckle that left his lips. "Fake it to make it. Plus I check up on him more than what is probably necessary to make sure he's doing alright. I know it's probably too much but just that simple response from him of 'I'm okay' or 'Doing better' is enough to put me at ease long enough to put up with you." That last bit earned Roman a ball of used tape from Dean's hands hitting him square in the face, causing another small chuckle to leave his lips.

Dean didn't reply, however, as he simply continued removing his gear and allowing the eerie and annoying silence to sweep over them once more.

~

Dean found it hard to fall asleep for the umpteenth time since Seth's injury. While Roman's sleeping presence was comforting, it just wasn't enough for Dean. He was relatively used to this type of thing, having never really had sleep come to him easily, but this was different.

Despite knowing he'd never be over there, Dean found himself always sitting up slightly and looking over Roman to where Seth would usually be. As if it were all a bad dream and he would wake up to see the younger two-toned man laying in his usual spot. But he never did. The spot was as cold looking and bare as it was the last time he looked about an hour before hand.

Usually Dean found sleep before this when they were all three together. He and Seth had this game they played, because usually they were awake later than Roman, and Roman was a gosh darn heavy sleeper. Whenever one was close to sleep the other would swat over at him to wake him back up. What started as a way to annoy the piss out of each other after a particularly argumentative day became a nightly norm. 

What Dean didn't know is that Seth's reasoning for continuing to do it was only partly to annoy him. The other half was because Seth noticed after the first few times Dean seemed to awaken the next day with a bit more energy and a bit less grump, so he made sure to continue it as he learned that it helped him sleep a bit, and maybe just maybe Dean was now coming to the realization that that is why Seth kept doing it.

The game helped ease Dean's nerves from the day and get any unused energy or fidgety-ness out of him so he could sleep easier. So while the front was that the game was there as another way to annoy each other, it wasn't exactly the full case.

Now that Dean was deprived of something so simple in his life, he realized how much he had become accustomed to that helping him sleep. He went to toss and turn again when he felt Roman's arm tighten around his waist. Shortly after he felt a small kiss being pressed into his unruly hair. "Stop thinking about him so much." Roman's voice came, low and raspy. Dean looked up to see Roman didn't even have his eyes opened. "It's not helping his recovery or your mental health." 

Dean didn't even bother with defending himself. He didn't have the energy nor, for once, the care too. He did, however, reach for Roman's phone once he was sure the Samoan was sleeping once more. He went straight to the texts between him and Seth and read through them. Roman had been right. While the most recent message was from hours before, seeing all the texts of Seth reassuring Roman that he was fine did manage to ease a few of Dean's nerves. While it wasn't making him miss the Iowa native any less, it was enough to put him in a calmer less frantic state of mind, which eventually aided in him drifting off.

~

It felt like years, when in reality it was only two months, before the two finally had enough time off to where they were able to go visit Seth and it not be for just a few hours before leaving again. Once a week ever few months they didn't have any houseshows to go to, giving wrestlers much needed time off to rest, relax, and see family. In Roman and Dean's case, it was time to visit their crippled lover.

A restless sleep, a billionth quiet morning, and a couple of hour flight later the two found themselves standing outside of Seth's home in Iowa. After the knocked they could immediately hear the barking of Seth's dog, Kevin, followed by the sound of Seth's crutches.

"Kevin, you should know by now that I can't move you out of the way in this state, can you please work with me here?" They heard Seth say, before they heard Kevin run off.

"Thank you!" Seth called out before opening the door. And oh boy if a smile could cure depression Seth just did it. The smile upon his face was enough to send Dean and Roman hurdling towards him and nearly squeezing the food he had eaten for lunch out of him.

"Hey hey, guys hello ruptured knee here?" Seth said in a bit of alarm at the sudden contact, worried for the state of his already screwed up knee. Seth couldn't even hug the two back as they had his arms pinned at his sides.

"Sorry, babyboy. We just missed you, that's all. Did you not miss us?" Roman defended in reply.

Seth rolled his eyes. "Never said I didn't, Ro. But if you two want me back sooner rather than later then I suggest not fucking up my knee more than it already is." That had both men pulling back, and while it took a second, Seth regained his balance with the help of his crutches and the wall. He then looked over to his lovers. "Well come in." He said with a small chuckle, maneuvering himself to face the opposite direction before hopping off into his house.

Dean and Roman spent no time in gathering their items and following Seth into the house. Once in they saw Seth propping his foot up on the coffee table in front of him, a crutch propped up on each side of him on the couch.

"Wow you look like shit." Roman commented once he took in the full look of Seth, having a new accessory of dark eye bags under his eye lids.

Seth glanced up at the two with a small smile and an are you serious look. "Cause you two are ones to talk."

"Yeah, but we always look like shit." Dean replied casually, shrugging his shoulders with his hands in his pockets.

"You sir, on the other hand, do not." Roman completed for him.

Seth rolled his eyes slightly. "And you guys usually don't look as shit as you do right now. We're all suffering here, alright?"

Dean looked at Roman and rose an eyebrow. While sassy usually, Seth was never really this agitated or talk backy with anyone but Dean. This was new.

Roman sighed then looked back at Seth. "Babyboy, how much sleep have you been getting on average?" He asked, crossing his arms.

"How much sleep have you been getting?" Seth asked in return.

Roman rolled his eyes. "Not enough without you. Now answer up." 

Seth grabbed his crutches and stood up, a lot faster than he used to be able too when he first got them. "You guys are acting like it's the end of the world because I can't get enough sleep. When you told me you were coming to see me I didn't expect you to treat me like I'm twelve years old." With that being said, Seth made his way up the stairs and to his bedroom.

Dean once more rose and eyebrow, this time in the direction of the stairs. "When did he become an angsty teen again?" 

Roman plopped down on the couch and sighed put loud, fully expecting Dean to do the same, which is why he was shocked when he spoke. "I'll go talk to him." Roman looked at him in pure shock. Had he missed something? He knew Dean missed Seth but this was a out of character. Before he could speak Dean beat him to it. "Before you ask yes I'm sure and no I'm not going up there to annoy him."

Roman scoffed. "Heard that one before."

Dean sighed and held out his hands. "Promise." He said simply, showing that there was no double crosses before heading up towards Seth's room.

When Dean found himself there he found Seth laying in a similar position to the one he had been in downstairs with Kevin resting on his lap. Dean walked over and sat next to him, not looking at him. "Spill." Seth looked over at him, as if trying to figure out what Dean was trying to get at by being there. Perhaps what type of stupid thing he was about to do to piss him off. However Dean didn't even look back at him. "Why are you getting so upset over something so stupid as Ro caring about you and your wellbeing?" 

Seth looked him up and down once more before sighing, realizing that yes, Dean was in fact being serious. "It's sleep lack. It's just so fucking hard to sleep when I'm in constant pain over this god forsaken thing," Seth gestured to his knee. "And on top of that it's so weird and almost uncomfortable sleeping in a bed on my own. Whenever I'm not hissing in utter pain I'm trying not to think about you guys and trying to figure out how on earth to operate with this much bed space and no dorks to keep me calm and assured. And on top of that being away from wrestling is actively killing me more than the pain in my knee itself. I can't even stand to watch wrestling unless you guys are on, and even then it's hard. A-" Seth cuts himself off abruptly when he feels Dean's hand touch his own. It's a simple touch. Dean just grabs his hand and begins to rub small circles into his palm with his thumb.

"I know it's hard. I know you've been suffering and I know you know we haven't exactly had it easy either. Ro wasn't trying to treat you like a kid. He's just worried about you, ya know? He hasn't seen you in two months and he knows what you do to yourself when you're alone. Now that he's here you can't expect the guy to not baby you a little bit. He only gets to see you a few days at a time at this point, so when he sees you he's going to pamper you a bit and make sure you're being healthy. You get me?" 

It takes Seth a few minutes, but finally he sighs to himself and replies. "Yeah, okay. I get you. I'm sorry." He mumbles the last bit a little, but he made sure to say it loud enough so that Dean could still hear it.

Comfortable silence falls over them for a bit before Seth speaks up. "Dean?" 

"Hm?"

"Thanks."

**Author's Note:**

> Second installment of this series. Could've done a better job but the goal was to get Dean to kind of slowly notice the difference of things with Seth not around and for him to slowly start missing Seth more and more. Also added angsty teen Seth because why not we all know he had to have had sleeping issues during this time, haha. Hope you like this next part!


End file.
